Baca zinn ch06-lecture

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Diversity in Families, Ninth EditionMaxine Baca Zinn • D. Stanley Eitzen • Barbara Wells

Diversity In Families

Chapter SixMeshing the Worlds of Work and Family

NINTH EDITION




Chapter Six Overview

• The Changing Work Patterns of Women, Men, and Children

• Integrating Work and Family

• Invisible and Unpaid Family Work

• Coping With Work and Family




Changing Work Patterns of Women, Men, and Teens

• Women's Employment:- In 1940, less than 20% of the female

population was in the labor force.- In 2006, 59% percent of the female

population aged 16 and older was in the workforce.

- This was not necessarily done as a cry for liberation, but more of as an economic necessity.







Work and Family

• Juggling work and family is a concern for most adults.

• Less than 10 percent of US families are homemaker-breadwinner configurations.

• We have discovered that the spheres of family and work were never as far removed from each other as we would like to think.

• Women’s participation in the workforce now rivals that of men.




Figure 6.1Labor Force Participation Rate by Sex, 1950-2009, and Projected

2009-2016Source: Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Winter 2001–2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor

Statistics, p. 39; “Employment Projections.” U.S. Department of Labor, 2007. Online: http://www.bls.gov/emp/emplab05.htm.




Women and Work

• Working wives now contribute about 35% of their families income and women out earn men in about ¼ of dual earner families.

• Men and women are still different in types of work done and the sector of the economy they work in.

• Despite family obligations, it is more likely than not that women will work outside the home while raising a family.




Causes of Increased Labor Force Participation For Women

• Changes in the Economy – a transition from a manufacturing to a service economy has had the largest impact.

• Decline in Real Earnings – families have become more dependent on women’s earnings due to inflation, unemployment and less purchasing power.




Causes of Increased Labor Force Participation For Women

• Personal Fulfillment – Work outside the home, paid work, gives women pride, worth and identity.

• Women realize that gaps in work experience may relate to lower pay and job insecurity, so they understand it is in their best interest long term to work outside the home.




Problems of Women Workers

• Women are less likely than men to be employed if they live in a region where unemployment is high.

• Finding stable child care can also be a hindrance to keeping work.

• Increasingly employers are seeking flexibility in employees and women may not be able to meet the demands due to home responsibilities.




Figure 6.2Change in Constant-Dollar Median Weekly Earnings from 1979 to 2007

by Educational Attainment and SexNote: Data relate to earnings of full-time wage and salary workers 25 years and older.

Source: Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2007, U.S. Department of Labor, 2008, p. 5. Online: http://bls.gov/cps/cpswom2007.pdf.




Changing Work Patterns

• Men’s Employment:- Men's labor force participation rate has

declined from 83% in 1960 to 72% in 2009.

- Declines were steeper for African American men than White men.

- Among White men the declines were due mainly to early retirement ages.




Causes of Decreased Labor Force Participation For Men

• Structural Unemployment – Advances in technology and the shift from manufacturing to service and information have had serious consequences for male laborers especially in industrial jobs. Four out of five people losing jobs are men.

• The Redistribution of Jobs – As manufacturing jobs have become more scarce, men are working in the service sector which pays much less.

• Decline in Real Wages – Men continue to supply the largest part of the family income but the share that women provide is increasing.




Figure 6.3Labor Force Participation by Age, 1948-2004

Source: Daniel Aaronson, Kyung-Hong Park, and Daniel Sullivan, “The Decline in Teen Labor Force Participation.” Economic Perspectives. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 2006, QI, p. 3.




Changing Work Patterns

• Teens’ Employment:- Contemporary youth are less likely to be

employed and work less hours than in the past. Since 2000 there has been a steep decline in teens in the workforce.

- Teens in higher income families are more likely to work than teens in low-income families.

- Teens enrolled in school are less likely to be employed than those not enrolled in school. As rates of high school graduation and advanced education rise, teens rates in the workforce decrease.




Integrating Work and Family

• The worlds of work and family overlap and interact. Work and family linkages vary based on the structural characteristics of each. Variance is also created through class, race, and gender stratification systems.

• Family Interference refers to the ways in which the connections between jobs and family life can be a source of tension for workers and families.




Figure 6.5Total Hours of Work per Week for Married Couples, 1970 and 2000

Note: Data relate to nonfarm married couples aged 18–64.Source: Kathleen Gerson and Jerry A. Jacobs, “The Work-Home Crunch.” Contexts 3 (4) (2004): 29–37.




Integrating Work and Family

• Spillover is the transfer of moods, feelings and behaviors between work and family settings. - Spillover can be positive or negative.- Work to family spillover tends to be more

negative and happens more frequently.

• For men, their work stress is more likely to affect their family life and for women, their family stress is more likely to influence their work lives.




Work Factors that Impact the Family

• Gender Inequality – Both family and work impose unequal demands on men and women.

• The demands of family intrude more on women’s work roles than on those of men.

• For men, the role is reversed. Their work demands intrude more on their family lives.

• The work-family role system perpetuates women’s inequality in the workforce.

• Marital status frequently has different implications for women and men who are seeking jobs.





• Pressures of balancing work and family are becoming more demanding for men as they are becoming more involved in family life.

• Some men are more willing to sacrifice career advancement to share family responsibilities with their wives.

• Persistent culturally prescribed gender roles continue to shape women’s and men’s work and family behavior in predictable directions.





• The Time Squeeze:- Time is a scarce commodity; as the

economy moves toward a 24 hour, seven day a week work schedule, little time is left for families.

- Shift work is on the rise while a full time “day” schedule is less common.

- In less than half of dual earning families, men and women both work a “regular” full time schedule.





• The Time Squeeze continued: - Timing and Scheduling of Work – both

men and women work more hours than they did 20 years ago. The timing of work is a strong determinant of family life.

- Parents are, however, maximizing their time with their children and actually spending more quality time with them than 25 years ago.





• Geographical Mobility – there are two types that influence the family; work related travel and job related moves and transfers.

• Commuting adds hours to our workdays and means reliable access to transportation is necessary.

• Employment related considerations comprise slightly more than a quarter of all reasons for moving.





• Others moves may occur because individuals must move to find work.

• Moving depends largely on the type of job people hold.

• While it is true that dual earners are more likely to move based on the husband’s promotion; that is becoming weak.





• Type of Work:- White Collar and Professional – In

general, higher occupational prestige and income increase marital stability and marital satisfaction.

A family may benefit from such success financially; however, it may force the professional to neglect his or her family.





• Blue Collar – Research has found that the characteristics of employment for the industrial working class negatively impact family life.- New research is focusing on women and their

work such as caring for other individuals in homes or nursing centers.

- Jobs requiring “women’s work” typically pays less.

- This has economic consequences for those doing these jobs and their families.





• Professional Satisfaction from Work – work may or may not be a source of personal satisfaction.- Research in the past has focused on men’s work

but is now focusing more on women’s lives and learning about job conditions that foster greater control.

- Occupations offering less desirable working conditions offer fewer intrinsic benefits and may exacerbate negative characteristics.

- Work-family conflict is related to life dissatisfaction, depression and hostility.




Family Factors that Impact Work

• Dual-Worker Families – dual working families are now the dominant form in the labor force.- Research shows that dual earners have high

amounts of stress, women in those families have higher self esteem and well being.

- For 20 years, research has found the health factor for women working is significant.

- Many roles provide different kinds of gratification.

- Married women in working class jobs appear to be more “traditional” than professional wives.





• The Wife as Sole Provider – in the majority of married couple families are dual earners, in about 7% the wife is the sole provider (US Census Bureau, 2008).- Many women find themselves in this role as a

result of unanticipated economic setbacks.

- Women in such jobs as health care and education have been less susceptible to job loss than their husbands in manufacturing.





• Wives as sole provider continued:- In some cases women take on the

primary role of provider while men stay home and care for the children and the home.

- Women may also continue to work after their husband’s retire, or their husband may be disabled.





• Single Parent Families:- Almost 1/3 of households with children are

maintained by a single parent.

- Nine out of ten single parents are women.

- Because single parents are responsible for the home and being the sole breadwinner, they face many obstacles.

- Single mother families have the lowest median income and experience the highest rates of poverty.




Invisible and Unpaid Family Work

• The labor of women in the home has been excluded from traditional definitions of work.

• Studies find that women do much more housework than men, even if both work full-time.

• A vast amount of unpaid work is done in the family – mostly by women.




Gendered Labor in the Household

• Housework is an example of work that is done inside the family without extrinsic rewards.

• Housework done each day provides cooked meals, clean clothes, scrubbed floors and other necessities.- It also represents family rituals.

• Domestic labor maintains families and it sustains the economy.





• Women continue to do a disproportionate share of the household labor.

• In recent decades, men have increased their family and household work while women’s have decreased.

• Husbands of working wives spend about ½ as much time on housework as their wives do.

• Husbands tend to do more housework if they are well educated and younger.





• The general pattern of gendered household. labor does not vary greatly by social class or race.

• Housework carries different meanings for women and men.

• Housework is sometimes called the “second shift” for women.





• Other forms of invisible labor:- Interaction Work

- Emotional Work

- Consumption Work

- Kin Work Women tend to do more of these kinds of

work than men in every family.




Coping with Work and Family

• Family Coping Strategies:- Coping as Human Agency – balancing work and

family life produces considerable strain. The family must adapt.

- For most families housework and childcare are the most difficult things to deal with.

- Parents use a variety of strategies to cope.

- Parents may pay for domestic help and child care.

- Most families rely on several strategies.





• Split Shift Parenting – is a strategy used principally by working class families. It is used to ease the burden of paying for child care.

• Sequencing – is the adjustment process of juggling competing demands by adjusting the timing of events over the life span. It involves alternating paid work with child raising rather than trying to combine them.





• Family-Supportive Government and Employer Responses – The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 provided medical leave to families and provided federally supported programs to help families.





• Corporation-Sponsored Work-Family Programs:- These programs have expanded since 1980.

- Many companies now have family friendly policies.

- Many studies have identified the importance of job flexibility in facilitating the integration of work and family life.

- Corporate policies can reduce or remove some of the stresses for workers who earn a living and raise children.

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